Truss suggests mini-budget may have paid off in the long-term July 12, 2023 Liz Truss appeared to suggest her mini-budget may have paid off long-term as her new taskforce warned the UK risks lagging behind other nations unless it tackles stagnation. Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister likened sluggish growth in recent years to a “boiling a frog situation” as she attended an event to launch the Growth Commission. Members [...]
Sunak says Ukraine ‘belongs’ in NATO as Wallace warns UK is ‘not Amazon’ for weapons delivery July 12, 2023 Rishi Sunak told Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky he belonged in NATO as he assured him “real progress” had been made on security guarantees for Kyiv in its fightback against Russia. The prime minister met the Ukrainian president on the fringes of the NATO summit in Vilnius. Zelensky has been left frustrated by the reluctance of [...]
Michael Gove’s housing department hands £1.9bn back to the Treasury in ‘blow to developers’ July 12, 2023 Michael Gove’s department returned £1.9bn of housing money to the Treasury claiming it was unable to spend it, leaving industry insiders baffled. The sum comprised money to pay for new house building projects, including affordable homes, and to conduct building safety remediations. Joshua Bond, founder and managing director of Bond Land, called Gove’s move “the [...]
PMQs sketch: A trip down memory lane July 12, 2023 If you’re ever in need of a history lesson, there are worse places to head than the storied and ancient House of Commons for a PMQs. But when it comes to political debate, we tend to hope our leaders will have their fingers on the pulse of the nation. Not so during this week’s Prime [...]
A legal puzzle: How to solve the post-Brexit Northern Ireland border July 12, 2023 Barnabas Reynolds is a partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP and the co-author of Mutual Enforcement, a recent publication by Centre for Brexit Policy. In this guest essay he makes the case that the UK can only solve the Northern Ireland border issue by drawing up an entirely new solution. It is sometimes possible to [...]
Starmer more trusted to build a strong economy than Sunak, poll finds July 11, 2023 Sir Keir Starmer has gained a seven point lead over Rishi Sunak on being trusted to build a strong economy, a poll of voters has found. Based on whether the public trusted them on the economy, the Labour Party leader scored 39 per cent compared to the Prime Minister’s 32 per cent, while just 29 [...]
China is main ‘threat’ to economic security – and UK blocked EIGHT Beijing takeover bids in last year July 11, 2023 China is the biggest “state-based threat” to the UK’s economic security, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden has said. Cabinet Office figures have revealed the government intervened in eight attempts by Chinese buyers to takeover UK firms due to national security fears in the last year. Dowden told the BBC Chinese deals posed risks due to [...]
Can Jeremy Hunt’s Mansion House reforms cure London markets’ malaise? July 11, 2023 Jeremy Hunt’s package of City reform has been hailed by top figures across the Square Mile today - even as one top money manager cast doubt on whether it would prove the right elixir for London’s market woes.
Digitisation of trade docs would save firms £1.1bn and put UK ‘ahead of G7 and most the world’ July 11, 2023 Businesses are expected to save £1.1 billion over 10 years through a proposed change in the law that will allow for greater digitalisation of documents used in international trade, a minister has said. Minister for tech and the digital economy Paul Scully said the change would put the UK at the “forefront of international trade [...]
Biden hails US-UK relationship as he meets Sunak at No10 July 10, 2023 US President Joe Biden hailed the “rock-solid” relationship between the US and the UK as he met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Downing Street. The US President praised the closeness of ties between the two countries as he and the Prime Minister held talks in the garden of No10. Biden, whose short layover in London [...]